Stop Defense

Zhang Chun Wu felt a rush of bewilderment staring at the Hitosu-Me Giant.

There were a lot of things he had expected, then wished for, and then hoped his Prime Artifact could accomplish, but never had he imagined that it would summon out a giant green ogre-looking thing to do battle for him.

Of course, he was not the only one who was stunned by the sudden appearance of a giant monster. Zhang Xia Yun also stood frozen at the edge of the battlefield, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

"What happened to Chun Wu? How does he suddenly have a working Prime Artifact?" Of course she, as Zhang Chun Wu's sister, knew very well about his imperfection. She had introduced a myriad of martial art practices for her younger brother in the hopes that he might awaken his Prime Artifact that way, but her efforts seemed to produce no results. Now however, it seemed that her brother had somehow managed to somehow solve the problem by himself.

Looking at the current state of the battlefield, Li Hou Jun felt a trace of panic shooting through his veins. Those three elders had assured him that nothing could go wrong with their little plan of theirs, so he had eagerly agreed to go along with the plan, thinking that he could finally secure a seat within the ranks of the main family.

Now he realized that he might have been set up by the other elders of the main family, Li Hou Jun gritted his teeth in anger. It was one thing to attempt to maim Zhang Chun Wu, but those bastards had insisted that his own Nephew do the deed! Isn't this sowing hatred between the Zhang Clan and the branch family of the Li clan?

Of course, the one who was the most stupefied was the unlucky Li Fei Yuan, who had to face down the great giant standing in front of him.

"Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here?"

Although he and Zhang Chun Wu didn't interact much, he still knew about the poor condition that plagued the third grandson of the Zhang family's Patriarch. And yet, what was this thing in front of him?

"Wait a minute Zhang Chun Wu, how-" Li Fei Yuan attempted to buy some time to recompose himself, but William was giving him none of it.

"Attack! Hitotsu-Me Giant! Give him a good slapping for me!" William bellowed excitedly. This Li family had pissed him off pretty hard earlier when they were finding an excuse to fight Zhang Chun Wu. Even though he had been silent for most of the time, William had accidentally blurted some choice words in anger after hearing them talk about a girl's wellbeing as if it was a toy.

With another angry roar, the Hitotsu-Me Giant charged at Li Fei Yuan. Surprisingly agile, it seemed to arrive almost in a flash, before punching down on it's target.

Seeing a fist grow in his vision, Li Fei Yuan finally snapped out of his daze.

"Wind God's Shield!" He anxiously cried, pulling out a jade looking sword from the void. Immediately, a barrier of verdant wind surrounded Li Fei Yuan, preparing to meet the attacking fist.

As fist met shield, a thunder-like sound swept out, followed by a large plume of dust pushing against all the spectators of the duel. Moments later, the dust cleared, revealing the Hitotsu-Me Giant and the green barrier that defended Li Fei Yuan. Neither had moved from their original position.

As William stretched out to see what had happened, he suddenly felt a wave of pain shoot throughout his body. It was as if he had unwittingly moved too close to a bonfire; the burn temporarily scalding him before disappearing into nothingness. He wondered what had happened, when he suddenly saw a message on the corner of his eyes.

[User has lost 300 life points, 7700 life points remaining.]

The message cleared up William's confusion. It seemed that the Hitotsu-Me Giant's 1200 attack points did not have the strength to break through Li Fei Yuan's shield, but it was not killed as the system had designated him to be in "defense position". Since the monster could not break through the shield, the excess amount of damage was transferred to Zhang Chun Wu's body instead.

"Interesting… so this is a shadow duel." As he pondered the significance behind that revelation, Zhang Chun Wu's voice echoed in his mind.

"What was that just now? Some sort of backlash?" It seemed that Zhang Chun Wu had also experienced the damage reflection from the combat between the Hitotsu-Me Giant and Li Fei Yuan.

"Uh, I'll explain it to you later, let me do my thing." William ignored Zhang Chun Wu's question. It was not like he could explain the properties of Yu-Gi-Oh's damage calculation while he was still in a fight anyway.

As William refocused onto the duel, he heard the sound of laughter coming from the wind barrier.

"Ha.. hahahaha! So your pet is only at the foundation building stage as well! Seemed like I was worried for nothing!"

Li Fei Yuan realized that he had overreacted to the monster's summoning. He had initially panicked because he had learned at Mountain Ogres, a species of savage beast, were incredibly dangerous opponents for cultivators because although they only had the cultivation level of an early core formation stage, their physical strength could easy match someone at the Perceiving Mind.

Li Fei Yuan had gotten the shock of his life when this Green Mountain Ogre had dashed toward him at thrice the speed of a regular mountain ogre. Despite it's speed however,

it's attack did not feel particularly strong to Li Fei Yuan. Although it's strike was certainly stronger than what a second stage Foundation Building cultivator was capable of, Li Fei Yuan's Prime Artifact, Wind God's Short-sword was capable of blocking any attack up to the Eighth level of the Foundation Building Stage.

"You little bastard! I'm gonna teach you a lesson for scaring me!" Li Fei Yuan muttered under his breath.

Upon realizing that the creature could not hurt him, his face had flushed a slight hue of red. Of course, even with his Prime Artifact, there was certainly no way Zhang Chun Wu could posses power over that of the Eighth level of the Foundation Building.

After all, Prime Artifacts grew with their owner, and a Summoning-Type Prime Artifact would probably not have the brute force needed to break a Defensive-Type Prime Artifact like Li Fei Yuan's Wind God Short-Sword.

Of course, The Wind God Short-Sword could only allow Li Fei Yuan to possess third level Foundation building power as well, which wouldn't be able to kill the summoned creature either. Based on the blow earlier, Li Fei Yuan surmised that the creature was somewhere around the early to mid tier of the fourth level of the Foundation Building Stage. Of course, he didn't have to deal with the monster.

Deactivating his shield, Li Fei Yuan dashed towards Zhang Chun Wu, intending to take him out of the fight, when the foot of the Hitotsu-Me Giant suddenly came crashing down on his right. He quickly reactivated the Wind God Barrier, then used the force of the monster's punch to dash sideways.

Upon successfully evading the monster, Li Fei Yuan charged at Zhang Chun Wu again, but fast as lightning, the green ogre again blocked his way, forcing him to defend first.

"Damn, I forgot about how fast this guy is!"

Li Fei Yuan thought to himself.

Upon seeing Li Fei Yuan's target shifting to himself, Zhang Chun Wu grew slightly worried.

"Hey, aren't you gonna go help your monster?" He asked William, who seemed to be standing in place for no apparent reason.

William looked at his right hand, which was holding four more cards, and then asked,

"How do you expect me to fight like this?"

"Can't you just use all the cards?"

Zhang Chun Wu asked, puzzled.

"Of course not! I can only normal summon once per turn!" William replied confidently.

Actually, he had attempted to summon more monsters a moment ago, but his action had been rejected by the system.

[Error: User may only conduct a normal summon once per turn.]

Realizing his mistake, William had quickly muttered "turn end", when Zhang Chun Wu had posed his question.

"Okay, so what are you doing now?" Zhang Chun Wu inquired.

"Waiting for my next turn."

If Zhang Chun Wu was in control of his body right now, he would have had an absolutely comical look on his face at the moment. Which fool waits for their opponent to make their move before he makes his? What kind of ridiculous rule is this?

"If you're not going to do anything, then let me go finish him by myself!" Realizing that William wasn't going to do anything, Zhang Chun Wu reasserted control over his body.

Immediately after regaining control, he attempted to wield his spear, only to realize his right hand was still full.

"I'm just gonna put these here for a moment" he said, dropping them onto the ground.

As the cards touched the ground however, they suddenly shattered, as if they were porcelain dropping from a table. The shattered cards immediately turned into light particles, before vanishing.

Zhang Chun Wu's heart jumped, wondering if he had accidentally destroyed the cards. Taking advantage of his panic, William managed to successfully regain control of the body.

[Detected that cards have left the sphere of the user's control. Banishing them face down until the end of the duel.]

"So that's what happens if I drop the cards during a shadow duel", William mused. In Yu-Gi-Oh, banishing facedown was one of the few ways of permanently removing a card from that duel, so it made sense for lost cards to be banished facedown for the remainder of the duel.

"I… I didn't mean to destroy them, I thought-" William heard Zhang Chun Wu stammer. He didn't care to enlighten the other party. That way, he could be in control for a little bit longer.

[Detected that opponent's turn is over, beginning draw phase.]

William looked over to the battleground. To his left, the Hitotsu-Me Giant was covered in scratches, staring down Li Fei Yuan, who was significantly closer to him than earlier.

"I guess the system doesn't do damage calculation when it's the opponent's turn." William mused. He had observed the monster attack Li Fei Yuan's shield several times as he attempted to close the distance on William, but there were no additional damage taken messages from the system.

Thinking about how to end the fight, William drew a card. Then a curious look emerged on his face.

"I wonder if this works against people".

Li Fei Yuan was only ten feet away from Zhang Chun Wu now. For some reason, during the entire fight, Zhang Chun Wu had refused to relocate or join the battle between him and the ogre. That was good too, if he could surprise attack Zhang Chun Wu, the ogre would probably disappear by itself.

Looking at the green ogre, he felt that it seemed quite strange. It only ever moved when he attempted to attack it's master. Otherwise, the thing would just look at him.

As he calculated the distance between himself and Zhang Chun Wu again, he suddenly heard the latter speak.

"You ready to give up now?"

Li Fei Yuan sneered in response.

"I can do this all day, Zhang Chun Wu!" He no longer belittled his opponent. Now that Zhang Chun Wu had awakened his Prime Artifact's powers, he could be considered an unparalleled genius. Li Fei Yuan no longer wanted to fight him at this point, but in order to give his brother a better chance, he had to injure Zhang Chun Wu enough to put him away for at least two weeks.

As he prepared his final blow, he heard Zhang Chun Wu again.

"Are you sure you don't want to give up? You might regret it later".

Li Fei Yuan remained silent. Then he dashed forward at his maximum speed.

As soon as his feet left the ground, the green ogre's fist came slamming down onto him. But he had long been ready for it. "Wind God Barrier, activate!" He yelled as the verdant winds covered his figure once more. Li Fei Yuan eyes located Zhang Chun Wu once more, and he jumped, preparing to strike Zhang Chun Wu in the lungs. Upon making eye contact, his heart jumped.

Zhang Chun Wu stared at him calmly, with a smile on his face.

"Activate spell card, Stop Defense!"

Li Fei Yuan suddenly felt the twisting winds around him disperse. Panicked, he attempted to summon the Wind God Barrier again, but his sword remained silent, as if it had suddenly decided to stop working.

"Battle phase! Attack Hitotsu-Me Giant! Finish him!"

The green monster swung his arms, and roared as its fist shot towards Li Fei Yuan.

Helpless, he prepared to face the strike, when suddenly a shadow flashed in front of him, followed by a cry of pain.

When the dust settled, Li Fei Yuan saw who it was. His uncle, Li Hou Jun had blocked the monster's blow with his right arm. On his left arm, a deep gash was embedded into his biceps. He traced the direction of the gash backwards, and saw Zhang Wu Zhi, calmly standing with blade in hand.

While the duel had been going on, both Li Hou Jun and Zhang Wu Zhi had suppressed one another, preventing the other from interfering in the fight. Upon realizing his nephew was in danger, Li Hou Jun had dashed forward, leaving his flank exposed.

Li Hou Jun calmly pushed away the creature, before turning to Zhang Wu Zhi.

"We admit defeat."

He turned around and gestured the Li family guards to back off, and then he signalled for the Li family to begin their leave.

As he walked past Zhang Wu Zhi, he stopped, then made a miniature bow.

"The Li family branch clan will not forget your mercy today." Only the two elders knew how much damage Zhang Wu Zhi could have inflicted to Li Hou Jun in that brief clash.

Zhang Wu Zhi sighed, then turned to the Zhang clan guards, signalling for them to disperse as well.